Foundation to Present 1st Annual Impact Fund Report
The City of El Paso will get the first annual report from the Medical Center of the Americas (MCA) Foundation this week on various ongoing efforts bolstered by the City’s investment last year. A Chapter 380 Economic Development Program Grant Agreement was established on February 7, 2012 between the City and the MCA Foundation.
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| This rendering shows what the entrance to the Cardwell Collaborative Building may look like when it opens in August 2015. (www.elpasotexas.gov) |
Representatives of the MCA will update City officials on various endeavors including funding resources, staffing efforts, and planning and design details for a biomedical institute and the tech park. The Foundation is also working continuously to acquire properties in the vicinity of the MCA campus.
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| The Cardwell Collaborative Building will be visible from Interstate 10. (mcamericas.org) |
The Biomedical Institute of the Americas (BMIA) was formed last year with help of City grant funding to encourage biomedical research and innovation in the El Paso region. To date, the BMIA has “triaged” biomed companies on a local and national level, according to the report, and hopes to become a “robust innovation pipeline” within five years.
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| A Cafe will be located on the first floor of the Cardwell Collaborative. |
Another venture the MCA Foundation has undertaken is the Clinical Research Organization (CRO), an effort to launch a local clinical trials network. The Foundation will align itself with one or more CROs, identify products needing clinical trials, and integrate them into the local provider network. The CRO launched in 2012.
Representatives will also update Council members on one current and one near-future construction project underway at the MCA campus.
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| This rendering shows what a conference room within the Cardwell Collaborative Building may look like. |
The $37.9 million Cardwell Collaborate building will be the first for the 13-acre MCA Tech Park off of Gateway Boulevard East. Design of the building is expected to be complete by October 17, 2013, with demolition and site preparation beginning in January of next year. Officials hope to have it open by August 2015.
The 83.000 square foot, multi-story building will be highly visible from Interstate 10 just east of the Spaghetti Bowl. According to floor plan schematics in the report, the first level will have conference rooms, administrative offices, and a café. The upper levels will have rooms for laboratories and research equipment, as well as some leasable space. The project’s architect is the Philo Wilke Partnership firm of Houston (
www.pwarch.com). The firm opened an El Paso office in 2010.
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| The floor plan for one of the Cardwell Collaborative's upper floors shows offices, laboratories, and leasable space. The facade which will face Interstate 10 is slightly angled inward towards the building. |
To the south and closer to the MCA Campus core, the new building for the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing is now under construction. The $14 million project will move the school from its temporary location near Downtown El Paso to the new 33,000 square foot facility in spring of 2015.
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| Tables and benches make up a seating area in front of the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing building in this concept image. (www.elpasotexas.gov) |
Recently updated renderings of the planned structure show a three level building that will be located across the street from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine’s Medical Education Building. The Page Southerland Page firm (
www.pspaec.com) is the architect on the project with offices in Austin. The contractor is Vaughn Construction based in Houston (
www.vaughnconstruction.com), with an office in El Paso.
The report will be presented to the City Council at its October 15, 2013 meeting. More information on the MCA Foundation can be found at
mcamericas.org.
